BEJA CONGRESS
EASTERN SUDAN FRONT

The Beja Congress,BC, is a political group comprising mainly several the Beja people of eastern Sudan. It was formed in 1958 by Taha Osman Bileya together with a group of Beja intellectuals, to advocate a federal system of governance, and to end the marginalization, under which the Beja people suffered. The east, south, west and north would form the states, to avoid future problems. As a political group, the BC was able to mobilize the educated sector of the eastern Sudan and, in 1965, it successfully entered the democratic elections and several of its activists won seats to the constituent assembly (parliament) of 1965-69. Though its activities remained limited during the years of the military government of Gaafar Nimeiry (1969-84), the BC was very much engaged, during those years, in recruiting members and mobilizing the Eastern population until the downfall of Nimeiry in 1984. With the military takeover of the current NIF government in 1989, the BC, together with other marginalized peoples of Sudan, was compelled to take arms and resort to force as the only means of achieving the political goals. In the 1990s, the Beja Congress began an armed struggle, and in 1995 signed the Asmara Declaration of the National Democratic Alliance. In 2004, the Beja Congress merged with Rashaida Free Lions to form the Eastern Sudan Front.
In2006 the eastern Front sighned the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement, ESPA, with the Government of Sudan, which promised to end the marginaliztion of the east.